https://goo.gl/3WiSQx
Miami-Dade County To Sue Jeffrey Loria, Marlins
By Jeff Todd | February 16, 2018 at 8:50pm CDT
8:50pm: The Marlins issued a statement to Hanks indicating that
the purchase agreement included language protecting the new
ownership group from claims relating to the stadium agreement. “
This claim has absolutely nothing to do with the [current]
ownership group,” the organization says.
6:31pm: Miami-Dade County is suing the Marlins, the former
ownership group led by Jeffrey Loria,and the team’s current
ownership group, according to a report from Doug Hanks of the
Miami Herald. The litigation will address a dispute that has
arisen over the municipality’s rights to a share of profits from
the sale of the organization that was wrapped up last fall.
Details of the suit are still somewhat sparse at this time. But
the general parameters of the matter were laid out by Hanks a few
weeks back and are touched upon in the above-linked post. The
county claims “fuzzy math” was utilized to prevent it from
recouping a share of the sale profits.
Generally, of course, a local government would not have a direct
claim to the proceeds of the sale of a sports franchise. But
Miami-Dade County forked over hundreds of millions of dollars to
enable the construction of Marlins Park. As part of the 2009
agreement that led to the new stadium, the county (along with the
city of Miami) is entitled to a five percent share of certain
profits from the franchise sale. Loria now claims that the $1.2B
sale did not leave him with any profits within the terms of the
contract.
It’ll surely be interesting to see how this litigation plays out.
The current ownership group (led by Derek Jeter and Bruce
Sherman) will necessarily be involved, given that it now owns the
entity that inked the original contracts, though its potential
exposure to liability is not clear at this point. While it’s
always possible that things could end up being settled out, the
discovery process could lead to the airing of quite a lot of
fascinating information regarding the Marlins’ finances. That
possibility, no doubt, will also play a role in how things shake
out.
Whether or not the team will be impacted moving forward, the suit
also promises to be of quite some relevance to the ongoing debate
over the public financing of stadiums. The Marlins Park episode
has long been cited by opponents as a prime example of the harms
the public can suffer when municipalities pay for the facilities
utilized by sports teams.
Marlins前老闆 Jeffery Loria與Miami-Dade County於2009年簽署利益共享協議，要將
球隊5%任何的營收分給郡政府。後來Loria把球隊賣了，對郡政府表示出售球隊賠了$141M
郡政府表示：開什麼玩笑，法院見